Sacrificing The Arts For Politics

March 12, 1992

President Bush handed the Republican right wing a trophy last month when he forced the resignation of National Endowment for the Arts chairman John E. Frohnmayer.

Although the NEA chief was a perfect leader of the embattled agency, the president abandoned Mr. Frohnmayer for the sake of political expediency. Conservative Republican challenger Patrick J. Buchanan was making the endowment's support of controversial artists an election issue.

In his 2 1/2 years as chairman, Mr. Frohnmayer gave inconsistent support to artists who challenge society by expressing strong, sometimes outrageous, social comment, or who deal with explicit sexual themes.

In one of his first decisions, the NEA chief withdrew the endowment's sponsorship of an art show about AIDS -- only to reverse himself a few days later. Then, for a while, he stood up to Sen. Jesse A. Helms of North Carolina, who wants to shut down what he perceives to be an agency that supports blasphemy and obscenity.

Soon afterward, however, Mr. Frohnmayer opposed grants to several provocative solo performers. He then denounced Mr. Helms and such right-wing groups as the American Family Association and the Coalition for America.

Mr. Frohnmayer told the White House in October that he planned to resign. But he did nothing about it, until the president's chief of staff reportedly asked him to leave.

The endowment is in trouble; support in Congress is weakening and Mr. Bush is unlikely to push for a new chairman until after the election.

During an election year, few in Washington want to go out of their way defending the good notion that civilized nations should provide some public support to the arts.

As a public agency, the NEA must consider public taste in its awards of money for the arts. But it must not become a political weathervane or impose an official orthodoxy on creative people.

Although Mr. Frohnmayer's tenure had blemishes, his forced resignation is unfortunate because it gives the self-appointed sentinels of "good taste" a sense of triumph